Any tips for Australians getting work Visas in Spain?

[Liv]

I'm an Australian (architect) working in London on a working holiday Visa. I'm wanting to move to Madrid with my boyfriend (who is Spanish) in April and was hoping for some tips on getting a temporary residence permit (or a Visa that allows me to stay longer than 90days), which I've just discovered is a lot harder than I imagined.
I've be told I need to go back to Australia to apply for a work visa and also have an official job offer and that the process could take up to 4 months.
I was hoping someone might know a loop hole or have some advice.
Would be greatly greatly appreciated!

[Bevdeforges]

Hi Liv, and welcome to the forum.

I don't have any experience with the Spanish, but what you've been told sounds remarkably like what I was told when trying to get into France to join my (then) boyfriend. At that time, the consulate in Stuttgart would not take a visa application (of any sort) unless you had a job offer (in French) to go with it.

If you had the job offer, you should be able to go through the Spanish consulate in London (based on your residence there). If you are "serious" with this guy, you might want to consider getting married - though even that won't guarantee you a visa (never mind one with immediate working privileges - those often take a year or two of marriage).

Have you looked into your job prospects in Madrid? If you could get an employer seriously interested in hiring you, you might be able to work out the rest of the issues (though the 4 month time frame for processing a visa sounds about right). Wish I had better news -but perhaps one of our Spanish expats will know of other alternatives.
Cheers,
Bev

[ecocentric69]

Hi Liv,
Just wondering how you went with getting your visa situation sorted and if it was as difficult as I'm being led to believe as well. For me it will be even harder as my girlfriend is English, I have just come back from tavellling for 18 months, am Australian and have no job offers over there and am in a non essential trade such as building and cabinetmaking. She is moving there soon to teach english. I could potentially do the same but it sounds very competitive over there for teaching jobs.
Anyways, any info greatly appreciated,
Cheers,
Tony

[sainomono]

Hi Liv,

I am in exact same boat as you are, except we are living in Melbourne at the moment.
I am also an architect, wanting to move to spain with my boyfriend next year (finger crossed with the curent unemployment crisis).

I hope to hear how you went, and perhaps you may be bale to shed some light about what is the best way of getting this work and long term visa.

best of luck

Sai

[Liv]

Hi Tony and Sai,

There´s not realy an easy answer to the visa questions ... After looking into all the options we got married (a year ago now) and that sorted out everything. It was a really good decision but at the time very stressful as we had only been together 1.5 years.

In terms of work, things are very bad here, especially in the construction industry ... basically there are NO jobs especially if your Spanish is not up to scratch. I´ve started my own little business and have been lucky enough to pick up some architecture work from Australia, working through Skype ... but it´s tough and we basically relly on one stable wage, which is doable even in Madrid.

Through my Spanish class I´ve met other Australians in the same position and though most of them have got married to solve the problem others have got a student visa or are here illegally.

The only problem with the student visa is that it is very expensive as you have to pay for 6 months - a year of Spanish classes (or what ever) up front ... that wasn´t an option for us.

Another option is a false sponsership (if you can´t get a real on) but this is also expensive as you have to pay social security while earning no money.

Maybe things have changed since the ´Rey´ went to Australia, I´m not sure? the best thing would be to call the spanish embasy in Australia.

Sorry I know this information isn´t very helpful ...

Good Luck!

Liv

[Warren D]

If you have an Aussie driving license you can swap it for a UK driving license that you can use all over the EU but I think you may need to land in the UK and find an address there that you can use to have the license sent to. It may not be worth the bother unless you are visiting the UK for some other reason though.

[Liv]

UK driving license? What does this have to do with Visas?

Originally Posted by Warren D

If you have an Aussie driving license you can swap it for a UK driving license that you can use all over the EU but I think you may need to land in the UK and find an address there that you can use to have the license sent to. It may not be worth the bother unless you are visiting the UK for some other reason though.

[sainomono]

Hi Liv,

Thanks for your response. any information is useful for us at the moment.

Does marriage give you a permanent residency+right to work straight away? Are there conditions which may apply for certain period of time?

Did you need a lawyer/migration agent at all or is it pretty easy to do yourself?

To be honest, we did think of 'marriage' as an option but as a last resource. So we have not really looked into it in detail. Do you have any advice on getting married in Spain? Is it wise to do it prior to, or after entering Spain?

Again thanks a bunch.
BTW where in Australia are you from?

Sai

[Liv]

Yes, after you get married you can apply for a five year residency card, which can take a few months to receive (mine took 6) and after this you have the same rights as a Spanish citizen (more or less).

We didn´t use a lawyer. The hardest thing was getting information.

It´s easy to get married here, but I also met an American girl who got married to her Spanish partner in the US and that sounded all fairly straight forward.

The main thing is it all just takes time and waiting and more time ....

I have some info that I wrote in another forum, I don´t think I can put the link so I´ll type it up for you .. maybe it will be useful.

I´m from Newcastle

Liv

Originally Posted by sainomono

Hi Liv,

Thanks for your response. any information is useful for us at the moment.

Does marriage give you a permanent residency+right to work straight away? Are there conditions which may apply for certain period of time?

Did you need a lawyer/migration agent at all or is it pretty easy to do yourself?

To be honest, we did think of 'marriage' as an option but as a last resource. So we have not really looked into it in detail. Do you have any advice on getting married in Spain? Is it wise to do it prior to, or after entering Spain?

Again thanks a bunch.
BTW where in Australia are you from?

Sai

[Liv]

Non -EU marrying a Spaniard in Madrid and NIE/Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union


A post was made about this subject on the April 2008 by an Australian in Barcelona, which I found extremely helpful! I’m also going to write my experience which has been in Madrid, as the more information the better.

I’m from Australia and married a Spaniard last November. My 90 day Schengen visa had already expired at the end of July (so by 3.5 months). I was a little worried about traveling but in October I did go France (but by car, not through an airport).

The getting married part was relatively simple (in hindsight!).

Step 1: Firstly I recommend going to the Registro Civil de Madrid at Calle Pradillo 66, 28002 Madrid (tel 914 936 630) and getting the forms which tell you exactly what you both need to take to the first interview. We tried several times to call to get information, make appointments, but never got through.

Things you need (some take a while to get):

1) Original Australian Birth Certificate, stamped with an Apostille of the Hague from the DFAT in Australia (My mum got this for me and posted it over). Then we had to get it translated by an official registered translator in Spain (you can get a list from the Aus Embassy in Madrid)

2) Certificate of no impediment to marriage & a certificate of where you´ve lived the last 2 years. I got these from the Embassy in Madrid (call them first to make an appointment), it costs about 90 Euros and only takes about 1/2 hour but you need something to prove the address you claim. I used my Aussie driver’s license. For the certificate of no impediment you need to sign a statutory declaration at the embassy.

3) passport

4) Also one of you needs to be “empradonarse” registered in the place you want to get married. In any case you will need to get your Certificado de empadronamiento from a Junta Municipal (find your closest one, there’s lots). First make an appointment and you will need something to prove your address, like your lease (my husband had to fill out a form stating I lived with him, as I’m not on the lease).

Step 2: Once we had all this together we went to back to the Registro civil de Madrid (calle pradillo) together for the first interview. You can’t make an appointment for this and we arrived half an hour before opening time and there was already a huge line. Also with us we had to take a witness and a translator (for me). We used the same translator as translated my birth certificate, I think he charged around 100euros. They told us to come back in two weeks to find out if our marriage had been approved.

Note: There was a two month waiting list to get married at calle pradillo, so in these two weeks we called around to find a place with a shorter list.

Step 3: After the 2 weeks I went back to Calle Pradillo to get our approved wedding documents and went with them and one of our witnesses for the wedding to Galapagar (where we had decided to get married, as it only had a 2 week waiting list) to make an appointment for the wedding, which was then 2 weeks later (you’ll need two winesses but only one needs to go with you to make the appointment as long as you take the ID of the other).

Note: The day after the wedding we flew to Australia for our honeymoon. I had nothing to prove I was married and was a little nervous (as I had well overstayed my 90day visa). In the end I had nothing to worry about, as the Spanish customs didn’t even look through my passport.
The problem came when I left Australia as the airline would not let me on the plane without a return ticket or visa for the country of origin. I did have a colour copy of my marriage certificate and family book (emailed by my parents in law) and that was enough for them.

When I reentered Spain, again customs didn’t check my passport.

NIE/Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union

Step 1 was to make an appointment with the Oficina de Extranjeria on tel. 902565701. We did this when we got back form Australia in December and was told our interview would be in May (5 months later!!).
I was lucky in that my father in law has a friend of a friend of a friend (or something like that) so I could get this meeting in January instead of May. To avoid this problem I recommend calling as soon as possible (even before getting married), as they asked for no proof of marriage to make the interview.

I had to take with me the following:
- a completed EX-16 form (Solicitud de Certificado de registro como residente comunitaria o Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union) + copies
- Libro de Familia + copy
- my passport + copy
- my husband’s ORIGINAL DNI card + copy
- my certificado de empadronamiento
- Three passport photos
They took my finger prints at this meeting and then told me I will get a letter in 1 to 1.5 months stating where I can pick up my residence card.
.
We got the forms from :: Ministerio de Política Territorial :: Modelos oficiales de solicitudes (except for the forms for paying the taxes which they gave us in the various offices).

I hope this is helpful to someone, as in the beginning I think I wasted a lot of time in confusion and stress due to a lack of information.

Good luck.